The new plan comes with a fairly large goal which many have told me is impossible. Although I’ve been discouraged and not as motivated to get this going as I was with my last race, I’m positive that sharing this plan with all of you will give me the accountability I need to get my butt in gear!

The details

The training plan

I’ve built up my base and am hopefully past all the knee issues I dealt with during my last year of training. As a result, I’ve kicked up the intensity a notch.

Interval training

I’ll be doing Tempo, Fartiek, and Hills combinations twice a week. These runs help to teach my body to use oxygen for metabolism more efficiently and in turn, will increase my lactate threshold [the point when my body fatigues at a certain pace].

During any exercise, lactate and hydrogen ion are released into the muscles. The ions make the muscles acidic, eventually leading to fatigue. The better trained you are, the more you’re able to push yourself and the better your muscles become at using the acid. The result is less acidic muscles that can keep on contracting, letting you run farther and faster.

These tempo runs help me push to that threshold and teach my muscles how to manage at higher speeds. This is going to be key if I want to cut off 15 minutes from my race time.

Tempo runs

Using the pace in the table above, I’ll begin each tempo run with a 1km warm up and end with a 1km cool-down.

On the treadmill #1: Warm up for 10 minutes. Peak at 4% for 1 km with build up and down to 1%. Run 10 minutes, walk 1 minute.

On the treadmill #2: Warm up for 10 minutes. Alternate between large hill and interval hill – 4% for 100m then 1% for 100m etc.

Outside: Warm up for 1 km. Find a hill and run up and down for the required distance. Run 10 minutes, walk 1 minute.

Steady and LSD training

Steady runs are the middle men between tempo and LSD runs (below). They help to strengthen and challenge your aerobic system, but shouldn’t tire you out. For marathon training, steady runs help to increase the total amount of quality miles an athlete can run before they become fatigued.

The LSD run should be done slowly to minimize fatigue and risk of injury. Generally speaking, it should be ~20% slower than race pace.

LSD runs:

Help your joints and muscles adapt and build your endurance

Teach the body to run efficiently

Allow your body to burn fat as a source of energy.

Enhance the body’s capacity to deliver oxygen to your muscles

Teaches your body to store more energy as glycogen in your muscles

Steady runs

The plan is to follow the required pace and km in the table above and use a run 10 minutes, walk 1 minute interval to avoid injury.

LSD (long slow distance)

Keep up to the required pace and km in the table above using a run 10 minutes, walk 1 minute (walking should be pace = 7:23min/km) interval to avoid injury.

Strength training

My trainer has put together an amazing program for me! We went through it yesterday and I nearly died… in a good way. The main focus is:

Hi! I’m Leanne

Holistic Nutritionist + recipe artist. I want to live in a world where every woman loves her body, nourishing fats are enjoyed at every meal, and the word “restriction” isn’t in the dictionary. Read more about me…